Thursday Mar 27, 2025

110 - Future Proofing Your Shop: A 2025 Auto Repair Outlook [THA 419]

February 7th, 2025 - 00:50:31

Show Summary:

In this episode of Remarkable Results Radio, Carm Capriotto hosts a roundtable with coaches Wayne Marshall, Ryan Daily, and Fred Hules II from The Institute for Automotive Business Excellence to discuss the industry’s “Great Correction.” They explore how shifting consumer behavior, dealership competition, and rapid tech evolution are forcing shop owners to rethink operations. The conversation emphasizes improving communication with customers, shifting from selling to allowing customers to buy, training service advisors effectively, and elevating shop culture. The guests provide tactical advice for better onboarding, pricing strategies, and creating lasting customer trust in a changing market.

Host(s):

Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio

Guest(s):

Wayne Marshall, Industry Coach

Fred Hules II, Industry Coach

Ryan Daily, Coach/Facilitator

Episode Highlights:

[00:02:40] - Carm shares concern over declining “auto repair near me” searches and the need for mindset shifts in the industry.

[00:04:51] - Fred emphasizes that the basics still matter, delivering value and educating customers should be the focus.

[00:06:04] - Wayne explains the importance of listening deeply to customers to improve diagnostics and technician efficiency.

[00:07:10] - Ryan outlines the shift from selling to building trust, letting customers want to buy based on value.

[00:08:18] - The panel recommends replacing the term "diagnostics" with "root cause analysis" to increase perceived value.

[00:09:56] - Ryan shares how transparency in DVIs, showing what doesn’t need repair, builds long-term trust.

[00:13:21] - Wayne highlights the growing importance of shop appearance and professionalism to meet rising consumer expectations.

[00:16:02] - Fred and Wayne stress that profitability must be intentional, owners need to believe in their value and price accordingly.

[00:21:19] - Ryan explains why training advisors before putting them on the phones is key to customer retention and shop success.

[00:34:23] - The panel discusses how strong internal culture fuels external customer experience and long-term business health.

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?

Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW5A0OXmOos&t=2456s

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Carm Capriotto: Hey everybody, Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio. So glad to have you here. I'm honored that you continue to support and listen to our podcast that we've been at for almost 10 years coming up in March of 2015 with over a thousand podcasts of just Remarkable Results Radio, 400 plus with the Town Hall Academy and so many more.

Carm Capriotto: We've got a great topic, something that's been really bothering me of late. There's, there is no doubt that doing business today is going to require a shift. In many things, a mindset shift, some of the processes that we do, what we need to start paying more attention to does your common sense and intuition climb up and say this kind of stuff doesn't work anymore.

Carm Capriotto: And I want us to, I've got three great business coaches I'm going to introduce in a minute. But I want to first thank so much. Our great sponsors here on the podcast, you know, for over 30 years, Napa tracks has made selecting the right shock management system easy. By offering the best, most comprehensive SMS in the industry.

Carm Capriotto: Let Trax prove to you that they're the single best shop management system in the business. Find them at N A P A T R A C S .com. And if you've not yet done something with today's class, it's time ready to optimize your training with today's class, roll out a training plan for your automotive shop, just five minutes a day. Well, there is my panel. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Glad to have you here. Wayne Marshall is here. All of this entire group are coaches with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence on the web at wearetheinstitutecom. Wayne Marshall. Hello, Wayne.

Wayne Marshall: Good morning, Carm. Thank you for having us on.

Carm Capriotto: Retired, yeah, retired shop owner and coach. Ryan Daily is here. Hello, Ryan.

Ryan Daily: Hi, Carm. Thanks for having us.

Carm Capriotto: Glad you're here. The only, I think, guy with almost all brown, dark hair. Interesting. So, think about this. You get a bunch of gray haired guys on this thing, he says, they gotta have some wisdom, wouldn't you think?

Carm Capriotto: So. We earned every one of these gray hairs. That's right, Fred. And Fred Ewells II is also with us. Thank you, Fred, for being here. Look, as I was stating earlier. I'm really concerned that the business that we've had and how business has operated in the last four years may just be impossible. Same strategies going forward.

Carm Capriotto: I read this article from Auto Shop Solutions. Google's trends on auto repair near me had a significant drop in searches nationwide. Not uncommon, but it's the lowest in almost five years. And it was between December 1st and 7th, 2024. So I am not sure why that happened. I don't think anyone is, but it's something not to ignore, you know, put in the back of your head somewhere.

Carm Capriotto: So I'm thinking about costs aren't coming down dealership competition. How do we become more efficient yet? Keep our client experience. At its heights, labor challenges. We know all about four day work weeks and all about recruitment. We know all about retention. We all know the value of empowering culture inside of our place.

Carm Capriotto: And then think about the technology, EVs, ADAS, augmented reality, virtual reality, that's going to be kind of an interesting frontier for us. The technology inside of tools, CRM, SMSs, all these. Cool acronyms that mean so much to us. And then AI artificial intelligence. Ooh, don't ignore it. That's what I keep hearing and finding out on my very own.

Carm Capriotto: And then of course, think about the specialties that may really drive new revenue opportunities in our business. That maybe we shouldn't ignore like keys, eight S calibration, tires, and maybe even trucks. So Fred, I want to start with you. Basically, this stuff isn't rocket science, is it?

Fred Hules II: No, it isn't, Karm.

Fred Hules II: You know, one thing that's that I've come to learn in all the years I've been in this business is that we go through cycles. There's ups and downs. And I think we just experienced a tremendous. Upturn, you know, we're because of COVID and the money that was around and everything, you know, things became very easy for us, and now it's becoming a little bit more challenging, you know, that money's dried up. I know that, you know, talking with some of my clients, it's been getting a little bit more challenging to get some of the approvals, you know, like they're used to getting. And so it's just going to take us a little bit more effort and really focus on really what's important, you know.

Fred Hules II: I think it's really good. It isn't rocket science. It's all about taking good care of the customer and providing a value. And I think that sometimes gets lost in too many times that I'm finding with some of my clients, especially the service writers that work for them is that they assume too much, right?

Fred Hules II: They assume that the client knows why they should have something done on their vehicle. And that there's not enough time spent in educating and telling them, you know, this is the why's and what for. So it goes back to taking good care of that customer more important than ever.

Carm Capriotto: I just love what Fred just said.

Carm Capriotto: And I've been thinking a lot lately about the language that we use. Everyone knows I wrote this incredible declaration on a language shift. And in order to make that work in our businesses, we have to slow down. And remember that we're going to pick different wording and improve our language and the professionalism of our industry.

Carm Capriotto: And you just said a mouthful about our service advisors. Again, maybe one of the best coaching opportunities we can have in the next 30 days with our people is to slow down.

Carm Capriotto: You're speaking too fast. You're making too many assumptions. Your brain is here and their brains back here. That's a great point. You brought up.

Wayne Marshall: I just was going to add to what Fred said. And I agree 110%. We've got to turn in to be better listeners because again, just as you said, the customer doesn't know, ask good questions, but then listen, don't try to answer it for them. Don't rush them. Take that time. To get as much detailed information that you can get because it's going to make it so much easier that when that RO is written up and it goes back to the technician, they've got so much more information to do that diagnostics because the diagnostics as we all know is harder today than it used to be because the electronics and everything that's in the cars and you can spend a lot of extra time chasing things because we just didn't ask some of the right questions and or listen to.

Wayne Marshall: What the client or customer is trying to tell us as to what's going on with those vehicles?

Carm Capriotto: Ryan, you hearing much feedback from your clients about the dealerships.

Ryan Daily: Yeah, absolutely. So just to touch on that topic. I teach my advisors all the time. Let the customer buy from you. Don't sell them anything, right?

Ryan Daily: If the perceived value of the service exceeds the actual cost of the service, Now you got a buyer and I don't have to sell them anything, but if the perceived cost is lower than the cost of service, now I'm selling and it's so hard to sell today, it's virtually impossible. And in an era where we can YouTube and Google, we got a lot of YouTube master techs out there that, that love to tinker on their stuff themselves.

Ryan Daily: And that's great, but we've got to allow our customers to buy from us. And I think that's the significant difference between. What we used to do and what we're trying to do today. It's a big shift that we're teaching service writers and advisors, managers. It's a big part of what we need to do.

Carm Capriotto: I don't care what we want done.

Carm Capriotto: Plumbing, carpentry, HVAC. We go to YouTube. We think we know, we found the solution. We call the expert. They don't give us that same thing we think we know. And so, we don't buy, we don't get it, we think it's too much. Oh, it's easy. You can do this yourself. Just put your finger here. Right?

Ryan Daily: It's all about value terms Carm?

Ryan Daily: Yeah. We don't use the word diag has been just run through the mud with all these, you know, part stores that you can go to and get a free diagnosis. We all teach our clients at the Institute to use words like. I prefer to tell them we're going to do a root cause analysis because that's actually what we're doing.

Ryan Daily: We're not diagnosing, we're doing a root cause analysis. We don't scan anything, we onboard an interface. And those are value terms that actually bring value to our sales proposition.

Carm Capriotto: I have spoken to so many shop owners to your exact point, Ryan. And this has everything to do with this correction that we need to have inside of our business in the language that we use.

Carm Capriotto: Researcher testing instead of DIAG because people to your point about a root cause analysis. I love that it's a little scientific. Get it. But to say, listen, we've really got to get in there. I'm going to take my technology specialist and we are going to research everything we have on your computer, on your system, on your network, or we're going to perform, you know, at least a dozen tests probably in order for us to Get to the root cause.

Carm Capriotto: I think it is so critical today and I love what you said they want to buy from you. Don't sell them. That's powerful.

Ryan Daily: It's the basis of what it is that we do here at the Institute. This is how you maintain customer retention. This is how you we fixate on customer attrition rate. And, you know, we expect below a 5 percent customer attrition rate.

Ryan Daily: That's what we expect. And we can only gain that through trust. The customer has to trust that. We say it all the time, the green sells the red, right? Fred taught me that Fred taught me green sells the red. So when I'm doing my DVI, I'm not just sending out pictures of brake pads at two millimeters. I'm not sending out just the red.

Ryan Daily: I'm also sending out. the cabin filter and saying, Hey, look, this is great. You don't need to replace it. The air filter is fine. No need to replace it. And I think that's super important in gaining a customer's trust and allowing them to buy from you.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. It's almost like we need to see a lot more. Okay. So that we can say yes.

Fred Hules II: You gotta, you have to, the customer's got to know that what they're investing in makes sense. So, I mean, do I have a good horse to invest in here? So, you know, one thing that Ryan was talking about the attrition rate and, you know, we teach it, you know, what we look for is a 5 percent or less attrition rate.

Fred Hules II: And that's something we focus on. You know, I was talking to a client just the other day that, you know, his attrition rate seems to be increasing. And I was asking him, why do you think that is, you know, and Carm, you mentioned, you know, A bit ago about the, you know, the dealerships and whatnot. And he says we know that a few of our customers are starting to buy new cars.

Fred Hules II: Okay. And I don't know if anybody's looked at this number recently, but new car sales for the last year have been up for the first time in a while, right? The big three of, I think what the Ford is up 13 percent year over year. Last year already. So we're starting to see some of those new car sales again, right?

Fred Hules II: So it's about educating our customers again and making sure that they're aware of that. We can service their cars, even though they bought it new. It's not gonna hurt anything with their warranty. But knowing then to there is that possibility. A lot of these new cars are being sold with maintenance packages and whatnot that we might lose a little bit to that.

Fred Hules II: But we have to be. Proactive, right? So you have to be aware, you have to be listening and understand what's going on.

Carm Capriotto: And we've been there before.

Fred Hules II: Yes, we have. Yeah. But on the other hand though, what's really more exciting too, is that the average age of the fleet here in the States have gone up yet again.

Fred Hules II: Yeah, so it's up to 12. 5 years old in the fleet that's out there, you know, 150, 000 miles on average. So, I mean, that's a real sweet spot for us. And we're positioned like no other part of the industry to take care of those vehicles. You know, you mentioned a new car dealers. Are they going to be very well equipped to take care of those?

Fred Hules II: Cars and do they want to really?

Carm Capriotto: No, I think the answer is no.

Wayne Marshall: I think another thing that's really important that the service facilities need to recognize, just as we're talking about the new car dealers, look at the money that has been spent over the last five plus years. on their facilities. You've got waiting rooms with coffee stations, workstations, things.

Wayne Marshall: And I know most shops don't want customers to stay. As I talked to my clients, they want the drop offs. We'll give them a courtesy vehicle, but there's always going to be those times when that person's in for that shorter service, or maybe they're willing to sit there for a couple hours. We need to have all these people in their shops also start concentrate.

Wayne Marshall: Are we an attractive facility? What's our street appeal? Are we looking organized, clean, professional? Are your service and your writers and your service technicians, how do they look? How do they present themselves? All these things, the consumer's expectations are just starting to go up and up of what they should see and what we should be doing.

Wayne Marshall: And I hate to say this just because I am with Gray, but generationally we used to never worry about that.

Carm Capriotto: No.

Wayne Marshall: It was just like, no, that was what, you know, it was okay. If we were a little dirty, little greasy, little, whatever today, it's not people's expectations for it have really changed of what you should look and how you present yourself.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. Perfect. Exactly. Completely agree. Wayne. I always love compare many of the. Situations in our world and in our life in the automotive to doctoring. Okay. And so to your point about upgrading our facility and making it look sharp. Okay, so there's no waiters. Think about picking up the phone, calling your doctor, listen, the internet's down, come in and pick up the script, or I'm going to drop by, okay, he's got something he wants you to test or try, and you walk in and you see, wow, what's going on here?

Carm Capriotto: This is really nice. There's a level of trust, confidence that happens when the place looks good. So thank God we've spent the money, maybe we had it to spend, I get all of that, but that was an investment in our future.

Fred Hules II: You know, to Wayne's point, you have to have though the resources to be able to, you know, make sure that your facilities up to date and looking right and fresh paint and the nice furniture and all that stuff.

Fred Hules II: So, you know, where does that come from? It comes from our customers and we got to take really good care of them and we got to know how to run our businesses and price things accordingly. You know, even then I still have some clients that I get pushed back on. Um, you know, wanting to raise their prices so that they have the profitability, not only number one, you know, one thing we've learned about going through COVID, how important it is to take care of our people, right?

Fred Hules II: And how do you do that? You have to have resources, right? You have to have the money in order to pay the top talent, right? What's going to keep these guys from leaving you or gals somewhere else. You got to be able to retain them, stay engaged with them, and you have to have the resources to be able to pay them what really they deserve.

Fred Hules II: I mean, this is a tough industry we're in, right? The technology is ever changing, right? And so there's a lot that we expect of our people to be on top of all that stuff. So we have to be able to pay them.

Carm Capriotto: You nailed the profit word. Let's talk about that a little bit. It was very easy for many people to climb up and out and find themselves a good, strong net operating income.

Carm Capriotto: But now with this shift, listen, let's just stop and think about the number Of very large corporations who've decided to cut a very big swath of their middle management out, gone, done. You've not read the articles. You need to be aware of an economic impact of middle management. That there was a lot of great money there.

Carm Capriotto: These were directors. These were VPs of companies that may not necessarily land somewhere right away. That's money. That's going to come out. Of, you know, the spend cycle. And I think it's something we have to pay attention to. So the profit issue, you all have great clients. I'm sure you have worked very hard to put them in a very sustainable profit mode.

Carm Capriotto: Is it difficult to get some shop owners to buy in and make this shift?

Fred Hules II: Yeah, we have some that will just listen to us and take the ball and run with it. And, you know, within a matter of. A couple of months, they've got things turned around profitability wise, and then there are others that just for whatever reason they resist, you know, and I think it has to do with their mindset.

Fred Hules II: A lot of it has to do with, you know, where the pricing is set. We got to go by that, you know, by somebody else, whether it be a supplier or they're worried about what the dealer charges and everything else. And they just can't get over the fact that it's all about the value part, right? Because my experience has been, I'm sure it's been for Wayne and Ryan.

Fred Hules II: The same is that if people know that they're getting something for their money, the money really doesn't matter, you know, just like Ryan was saying, you know, you give the value and everything. You're not selling anything. They're going to buy from you. It comes really down to that mindset. And we got the shop owners.

Fred Hules II: We have to believe in ourselves. Got to believe in our people, stick our chest out proud, that we're worth it, and we are.

Wayne Marshall: Fred's right. I get into conversations and I'm just blown away at times. You'll have someone and you'll start talking about, and we'll share, you know, here's what we're seeing. Here's the trends in the industry. You need to really come up five, ten dollars an hour. And they'll just Fights it tooth and nail over 5.

Wayne Marshall: We sit there and we go what's your average RO? It's this, and your average labor is three hours. You're talking 15 on a 750 or 800 average RO. Do you really think your customers are going to, and they're like I'm going to lose business. You really think they're going to leave over 15? If they're going to leave over 15, let's talk about the customer experience and that value proposition, big picture, because you've got bigger problems than.

Wayne Marshall: That 15. So you start there and you build from there, but it is, it's just blows me away at times. And then once they do it, this is the other thing I have found. And we've probably seen it also, Fred and Ryan, then they do five and 10 and they're like that was easy. There was no big deal. Then the next time they're like let's go another 10.

Wayne Marshall: And that's after just a few months. And it's like, let's be careful how fast you go. Wait, six months, go another 10 and then just kind of pay attention and see, but it's all about those hours and getting a billable hours. That's what you're selling is your knowledge, your experience, and you got to watch them.

Wayne Marshall: You got to get it.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah, but Wayne, isn't it about, look, listen, we've done the math. We know where our profit target goals are. This is what we have to do up here in order to make something down there happen.

Wayne Marshall: So it's not only that, but I know I can, I'm not going to try to say what Fred and Ryan are seeing, but I'm sure what I see, it's not just, are we getting the right labor hour rate. It's about, are we charging enough labor? Because I'm seeing, and I'm sure we're all seeing at times, they're not doing a good inspection. They're not doing a good estimate. They didn't get the job and they didn't bill for that extra 30 minutes to an hour they should have. So they got labored leakage.

Wayne Marshall: So you're not being efficient with the hours you have every week with your tech to maximize. Even if you get the right hourly rate, are we getting all the right billable time into the estimate and charging the client customer what they should be charged for all the work you're doing. It's a, you're right.

Wayne Marshall: It's a combination of things. It's not just flight, raise your rate, but make sure you're getting everything else done correctly and properly.

Carm Capriotto: Ryan, I've got to jump to you on this because your expertise at the Institute is the service advisor segment. And I know that's what you're. extremely passionate about.

Carm Capriotto: And if we think about a great correction, one of the things that I have felt for the last, like six months is the critical importance of continuous training of our front counter and how impactful. To a degree, don't sell them, let them buy from you. That is a great concept that you spoke earlier. Let's dive into the power of our counters going forward.

Ryan Daily: Sure. If it's that old adage, right? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And if my technicians aren't doing a proper inspection on the vehicle that we have in the shop on a lift, and they're not doing a good inspection on that's our opportunity to allow a customer to buy from us if we don't know.

Ryan Daily: What the customer needs. We can't formally educate the customer on whatever their needs are. It's just impossible. And training advisors, we got to remember, you know, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Our advisors are our impression to our customers, right? They are customer facing.

Ryan Daily: They're the ones that are talking to the customer, educating the customer. So the customer buys from them at our shops. If our advisors are ill trained, I have a shop and they're bringing on another advisor here very soon. And their 1st thing was, okay what we'll do, they have a phenomenal advisor right now, and 2nd, because.

Ryan Daily: They're just so busy and it's a diesel shop and their whole thought process was we're going to bring in this junior advisor We're gonna let them answer the phone. I said no Don't let them answer the phone. That's where we always want to start We always think that we take a junior advisor and put them on the phone I take a junior advisor and I let them do the clerical work so they understand work order flow So they understand how a proper RO is written And the phone is our, one of our best tools.

Ryan Daily: I don't want somebody that is not formally trained yet to be fielding the phone calls from potential customers. that are coming in. And to Wayne's point, I think it's okay that we can say that not every customer is our customer as well. I have a whole price shopper flow chart that I go through with my advisors to teach them how do we deal with those price shoppers.

Ryan Daily: And I tell them all the time, what is your average technician worth? How many technicians do you have? I have three. Okay, and what are we paying those guys an hour? 50 bucks? So that's 150 an hour for them, and you're the one feeding that machine. So your time is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than the technician as an advisor.

Ryan Daily: And I don't think that we look at it that way sometimes. We constantly send technicians out for training. And we don't think about the advisors.

Carm Capriotto: So let me stop you for a moment and ask a couple of things. I love your philosophy. Let's not put them up and on the counter to answer the phones, but we need to have some training, probably get them hooked up with Ryan.

Carm Capriotto: We need to make sure they understand how the operation works, what our process workflow, as you said. But another thought that I had was, okay, for an hour a week, we're going to have them listen to calls of other people. Maybe even part of the training with Ryan, we're going to go in and just, this was a great answer that way.

Carm Capriotto: So the point of it is, I guess the conditioning inside the culture of the company, the right way to answer the right way to workflow, the right way to estimate the right way to, you know, talk about the DVI. It seems to your point, what is it? A 30 day wait before they become any perfect value for you?

Ryan Daily: Depending on the person. I mean, it really depends on their ability. Are they a sponge or are they a rock? And that's really what you hire slow and you fire fast. It's all about the culture. And if we have the right person in the right seat and that person is a sponge, I have advisors that I coach.

Ryan Daily: That have been advisors for over 10 years and they still want, they still need the coaching. I listened to hundreds of phone calls a week with my clients and we go through and we don't Monday morning quarterback it. We just talk about a standardization of the way that we answer the phone. How do we, are we building that value?

Ryan Daily: Are we talking to her? Are we educating our customer? Don't just send the DVI and sit on it. Send the DVI and then give them a call so you can explain it. And, you know, honestly, the advent of the DVI, a picture is worth 1, 000. That's what we tell our clients. You know, I have shops that minimum of 20, 25 pictures.

Ryan Daily: I don't care if they're all green, right? But at the end of the day, don't just send the DVI and then sit on it.

Carm Capriotto: The client needs to know that you care to the point where you're looking at everything. And thank God we have found this vehicle is in such great condition. You should be very happy and proud.

Carm Capriotto: And you know, the cost per mile is going to continue to. be solid. What about a role reverse in an idea where you have an individual listening to the call with you and say, is if you were a customer, how do you think you did?

Ryan Daily: Yep. We do that all the time. We have several different softwares that we use to listen to phone calls.

Ryan Daily: Every shop has their own. If you don't have a call recording software as a shop, I don't know what you're doing. You've got to know what's being said when you're not there, and it's super important.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah, we've got a great sponsor in our network, Inbound, and I know there's a million of them else out there.

Carm Capriotto: Wayne, Fred, want to chime in on that service advisor section at all?

Fred Hules II: I think one thing that I picked up that you said, especially with the DVI and sending them out, Ryan said this, you know, you've got to call the people. You know, one thing that I think we ought to caution ourselves with, I mean, we've got technology all around us.

Fred Hules II: And we've got these fantastic tools at our disposal, you know, online scheduling, the DVIs, you know, all this stuff around here to make our lives easier, but what I want people to really understand, you know, as I said earlier, about the rocket science thing, we still need to build relationships. We still need to reach out and touch our customers.

Fred Hules II: As Ryan says, call them up after you send the DVI. You know, talk to them about it, right? Make sure they understand what they're seeing, educate them, right? So I think that's the part of the whole value part of it that I don't, that a lot of people are missing this day and age. You know, it's really important.

Fred Hules II: Stay engaged with your customer. It was just like we should stay engaged with our staff, right? To make it all work.

Carm Capriotto: Hey, Wayne. I just had a, I just had an outer body experience about that. What Fred just said, be a teacher.

Wayne Marshall: Yep. I'll tell you what, we're all saying the same things. I listen to a lot of calls.

Wayne Marshall: We give feedback. We talk about it. It is so simple. When anybody comes in as part of your intake, ask them how they want to be communicated to. Some people might be in a job that they can't take that phone call, but they'll easily take a text or an email through their smart. you know, device that they have with them, just ask them because me personally, I'd rather have someone just call me and talk to me than send me a text or send me an email.

Wayne Marshall: The other thing of it is obviously there's always, after you've had all these conversations and we've set this wonderful bar of expectation, one of the things I Tell people, and I just call it the two by two rule. After the customer leaves, what are you doing? Are you following up? Two days afterwards, are you okay?

Wayne Marshall: Was everything done well? It could be, and if you've qualified how they want to be communicated with, it could be a simple text. Did our service meet your expectations or follow up in two weeks? Is everything looking really good? But if you haven't had any touch, you need to talk to them in two months. Who else could use our services?

Wayne Marshall: I mean, everybody likes to say. Hey, let me tell you about the guy I have. I got this guy that works with my car and he's awesome. Everybody loves to be that person to say they got a guy or got a person. Encourage them, but that's gotta be after the sale and after the service is done. Because you know something, we all know some of the service intervals that the manufacturers are saying.

Wayne Marshall: There's no way on God's green earth I'm waiting 10, 000 miles for an oil change. I don't care what the manufacturer says. But these are these things that if we don't talk and stay in touch afterwards, two days, two weeks, or two months, whatever you choose to do, there's got to be some rhythm. It's too easy for them to forget who you are.

Wayne Marshall: And we want to stay top of mind because most service that needs to be done. There are things you look at it's maintenance, but if it's a break fix, your car won't start. You want to be top of mind that they look and call you immediately. They're not looking on the internet, who to call. They already know who to call.

Fred Hules II: Yeah. But Wayne, what about the guy that the shop owner, and I know that you know of them that will say the manufacturer is right. You know, they're the ones that say it's, you know, the 10, 000 mile interval or maybe the lifetime fluid in the transmission. I mean, what do you say to that guy?

Wayne Marshall: I always put it back to their personal vehicle and I use myself as an example.

Wayne Marshall: And I've owned European cars where they do have some, a BMW. It's a sealed unit. You never need to change the transmission fluid. But at the same time, BMW will tell you, flush your brake fluid, flush other fluids and replace, but don't worry about that. And you go into those conversations and I find it, you're always going to get the one guy who's going to go, I don't care.

Wayne Marshall: This is what I'm going to do. But usually when you sit and you talk to people. And it's like, if it was your vehicle, would you wait that? And then he goes no, then treat it like you, you know, or if it was your daughter's, there's another, it was your kid, I wouldn't do that.

Carm Capriotto: I heard a great response to that 10, 000 mile thing.

Carm Capriotto: And it says, listen, the manufacturer has worked very hard to get their cost per mile down so they could put it on the tag outside of the car. 10, 000 mile oil change is part of that formula. And it is just not, but then you get a YouTuber out there that says, listen, it's 10, 000 miles and don't let any shop tell you different.

Carm Capriotto: And the consumer is kind of, what do I do? You know, Wayne wants me to do this. I'm hearing from other people in the manufacturer that, and again, I think it goes back to this great. You know, the pitch, if you will, let them buy from you. The fact that you're looking for a longevity cost per mile for them.

Carm Capriotto: And God help it. If we go 10, 000 mile oil changes and all the things that can happen, it's too important not to get your customer to trust you for all the right reasons. Correct.

Fred Hules II: I think it's important to, you know, just realizing what the new car manufacturers, when they design these plans to get the cost per mile down.

Fred Hules II: You remember they're all in it to sell cars, right? And they're, you know, a lot of our customers are, you know, they're buying a car and they're keeping it for a long time these days. I mean, as evidenced by the number that I gave before, but the manufacturer's motivation is not necessarily the same thing.

Fred Hules II: So we got to recognize that. So that's a part of explaining and teaching our customers.

Ryan Daily: We always want to pre schedule too. When the customer comes and picks up their vehicle, we've held up our end of the bargain, we've under promised and over delivered, we've done everything right, and the customer's happy.

Ryan Daily: And Mr. Customer, you're, you have 98, 000 miles on your car right now. Manufacturer says you need 100, 000 mile service based on your driving habits. I'm going to schedule you for March 14th. If you get close to 100, 000 miles before then, give me a call. I'll move the schedule around and get you in. Cause this is a very important service and that's how we keep retention.

Ryan Daily: That's how we keep the attrition rate down. We keep our customers coming to us and you know, where we should be advocates for the vehicle, not advocates for the person. I think we get it misconstrued there. Customer service, good customer service. Isn't sugarcoating the truth to somebody. Good customer service is educating them and being an advocate for their vehicle.

Ryan Daily: We can speak tech and ease as advisors, right? We're bilingual. We're fluent in customer and tech and ease. We need to use that and we need to. Absolutely pre schedule your customers to come back and see you, whether it's for an oil change or 100, 000 mile, 120, 000 mile service, whatever it might be, we need to be an advocate for that vehicle and keep them on the road reliably and safe.

Carm Capriotto: Okay, we have had an incredible conversation so far, and I have only another nine thoughts floating in my head and, you know, because we're here talking about, we're in this great correction. What are we going to do about it? Advice from the experts. So here's the couple of the thoughts and maybe we can cover that this in the next 15 minutes, marketing, our marketing, spend our aging workforce to the point, not only for succession and selling, but many of our great specialists that work in the bays, they're getting old.

Carm Capriotto: We know that. Let's pick one of these. Let's get this, just this culture thing up in and out. I mean, we're culture, great culture inside breeds it outside to the client experience.

Fred Hules II: Without a doubt. I mean, if your people are in line with the owner's mission of the company. And everybody is pulling in the same direction and the staff knows they're appreciated.

Fred Hules II: They're going to be better apt to take care of that customer when it comes in with a, you know, with a willingness and wanting to be of help, versus a culture that is disconnected. And, you know, there are people are there just to punch the time clock, come in and do their job and go home. You know, that's a totally different.

Fred Hules II: Set of circumstances. So, you know, here again, I think that's one of the really, you know, benefits of us going through what we just did, this thing called COVID that we learned a lot of those lessons, right? How important it is that we take care of our staff and that, you know, one thing I always would tell my people is that, you know, especially when I'm bringing somebody on as a new hire, this business is here to serve us.

Fred Hules II: And what we want to accomplish for us and our families, not just my family, but your family, right? So that's why we're here. And while we're here, we need to make sure that we're focused and we're doing our job and take care of our people and our customers will take care of us. But that's why we're here.

Wayne Marshall: I agree, 110 percent and realizing the psychological aspect of how people are, if we don't stand up. As a business owner or manager and define our expectations and what we're trying to do and what we're trying to deliver, you're leaving it up to your employees. Which they'll all do. We'll all, we do it by human nature.

Wayne Marshall: Our imagination will fill in the gap. Now, our imagination, our assumptions might be spot on. And if I work for Fred, I may be, he doesn't have to tell me I understand it, but that's a rarity. Most people. They don't know if we're not taking the time to explain, just as Fred stated, we're leaving it up to them to create their own identity of what our brand is or our culture and execute it at their level.

Wayne Marshall: And then we can't be mad at them when they don't do it. When we never set the bar of expectation and gave them the definition of what it is and what those deliverables are.

Carm Capriotto: I have to tell you, that was a powerful statement. Our imagination will. Fill in the gap.

Wayne Marshall: It's a true statement , but it is so true. And it's just like when we, and you take a young apprentice who comes in and yeah, he just came out of school and you're going, yeah, he knows all this.

Wayne Marshall: And he went to this tech college or whatever. They've got the fundamentals, but when it comes to the daily operational, we're thinking they've been trained. What do you mean he doesn't know how to do this? So you always got that senior guy who's doing the QC for you and doing the other things and giving them the feedback so they know and understand what the deliverables are.

Wayne Marshall: One of the things I've done with clients when I start talking to them, I said, look at it this way. If you want to talk about culture and how people look at you, if for whatever reason your facility, your business was having a funeral and you died, who would come? Who would care? Would you have customers come?

Wayne Marshall: Will your vendors, parts suppliers come? Will your employees come? Or will all those people just say, Oh, it's too bad. And all they did was go out, find another place to get their car fixed, find another place to sell their parts, or find another place to work. When you can develop that, where they start feeling the impact, because as Fred said, we're stakeholders in this as a team.

Wayne Marshall: It's not just me. We're all stakeholders. Everybody's important. All the parts suppliers, they depend on us to spend money with them. You depend on us to do it right, to pay you your wages. So it's kind of a harsh and maybe a dark way to look at it. Talk about a funeral, but that's when you know when people love you, care for you, and they are sad to see you gone.

Wayne Marshall: Now you know you've created that culture. You've really done something.

Fred Hules II: Let that sink in.

Carm Capriotto: That is a great point. And I loved your point about bringing on someone in someone new and expecting, Oh, it was one of these, you cannot take a brand new person, even if they're. An established senior specialist that comes in, you cannot set it and forget it. You just can't. Now, if you want to lose your QC and your client experience going to go in the tank, just let someone come in and let me see a boat on steered.

Carm Capriotto: We'll go in a circle and it will just. Terrible. I loved your point about bringing on a young apprentice, maybe up and out of college. One of the things that in our mind we have to think about is this educational, this continuous education curve that has to exist in our business because everything is going on so fast.

Carm Capriotto: I don't care what it is, front counter, back counter, back office, in the bays, every day there's something new to learn. If you think about this level of Absorption and learning from one to a hundred and that one hundred keeps moving and moving and moving. Okay. It's a constantly high moving target.

Carm Capriotto: An individual comes in. That's a, an apprentice. Let's just put a number up there called 18 out of a hundred. And that hundred is going to keep moving. What are you going to do? You can't set it and forget it. You have to find mentors. You have to continue with education. And in fact, if you set the career pathing, Up is to the different kinds of jobs that person is going to be working on.

Carm Capriotto: They have something to look forward to. They're not making it up. They're not imagining the next thing.

Wayne Marshall: And that builds on culture that helps the, you know, most people, cause people, we all had someone in our lives who was a mentor to us at one time. And we think back fondly of those memories and the connections and how that person meant so much to us.

Wayne Marshall: And. It's not gonna be for everybody in a shop, but chances are when someone has an opportunity to share and teach, it makes them feel good. It's fulfilling for them just as much as it is to work with that young person, which creates connection, which creates them feeling their Belongingness, which helps everybody now not want to go find another job.

Wayne Marshall: You'll help in retaining because just as Fred said, you're explaining them that it's all symbiotic, man. It all works together and understanding that role is just as important as anything else that has to happen.

Ryan Daily: And investing in your staff, right? I mean, that's a huge part of culture.

Ryan Daily: You know, we oftentimes don't think of continuing education as an investment and it's a shame, you know, if it. People sometimes think, what if we spend all this money training this guy and he leaves? The worst case is, what if you don't train him and he stays? That's worse. That's far worse. So, that's all part of culture too.

Ryan Daily: I mean, your staff knows if you're spending Maybe a thousand, 2, 000 a month on training for them. They understand that's important to you because your customers are important to you and it starts to build that culture. They see that.

Fred Hules II: Investing in your staff is, you know, like you mentioned training too, but I'd like to suggest.

Fred Hules II: Investing in time also, you know, one of the things that we do, I mean, we, Ryan, I think you talked about, you know, be slow to hire and quick to fire when you really take the time to hire the right person on the team. And then they're there, right? You're on, what is your onboarding process, right? Are we setting them up for success in our company?

Fred Hules II: Do we have a process and a procedure that lays out what's going to happen day by day? You know, for the first couple of weeks to make sure they understand where everything is, you know, the parts, the hazmat material book, you know, all the stuff in our shops, you know, we don't want to leave anything to question.

Fred Hules II: As Wayne said, then their imagination is going to go the way it's going to go. So I think that's a really big part of it too. Are we investing time in our people to set them up for success and that's going to set up the right culture in our company.

Carm Capriotto: I am in love with that particular takeaway, Wayne, a 30 day onboarding process, and each and every day over the next 30 days, there is something going on inside your training process, and I'll bet you.

Carm Capriotto: Any shop owner can sit down and write 30 bullet points or just call it four weeks at five days 20 pick it four weeks of training 20 If you're a top tier shop, that's no problem to fill in those 20 days Not at all because you know The critical importance of no matter what job that person has the counter needs to know what's going on In the back needs to know what's going on in the front.

Carm Capriotto: The office, they need to know what's going on in the office. How do I do payroll? How do I sign up? How do I do this? How do I do get PTO? All of this stuff is so critical in an orientation, 30 day onboarding or orientation. Wow. You know, I don't know if we have even covered part, even part and parcel, 25 percent of the thoughts that I had about we're in a great correction.

Carm Capriotto: What are we going to do about it? And how are we going to move forward? I think we have to do a part two because there's so much more to discuss. And all of your great experiences were just, thank you for bringing them to us.

Wayne Marshall: One thing that I find really fascinating that we're seeing in The industry and we're seeing in businesses, small businesses across the country.

Wayne Marshall: It's that transfer of wealth. I mean, the government started talking about the baby boomers and the aging and the things that were coming. This started talking about five years ago. Plus we're in the heart of it today. And what is very encouraging for me at this industry, I know some of the clients I'm now working with, I've got some 20 year olds who have decided to buy or start their own shop and the enthusiasm and the way they're approaching is refreshing.

Wayne Marshall: So why there's still concern and we talk about the labor, the techs who are out there, the problem we're getting to get young people in the industry. I'm encouraged because I'm seeing some people and it's exciting to listen to them. I don't know about Fred or Ryan and some of your bases of, but I am genuinely excited the next time I get to talk to them as they're.

Wayne Marshall: Building and as they're getting excited and they're starting to make money and it's making a difference for their family and for their future. So if we can continue to work on that as an industry and we, as coaches, I think we're going to be fine in time. There's a, there's this day coming where there's going to be a continued transformation of who owns it, who runs them compared to those with the gray hair, as some of us on this call to those that are not.

Wayne Marshall: I'm excited that we're here to help. I'm excited that we get to do some things with some of those all on the selling side of the buying side. And even that developing the young people, there's some really cool people out there starting their businesses.

Carm Capriotto: I'm kind of moved by what you just said in something I very strongly believed in.

Carm Capriotto: Outsiders. From the industry that have some money, they want to come in and invest. I know a ton of them. They're doing so damn well because they approached it not from, I love to fix cars, but I love to make money. Okay. And some of the young people, so the outsiders and the young people are really doing, in my opinion and then the established.

Carm Capriotto: Strugglers are closed to new ideas and support and all these great things that we've talked about here on this episode. So maybe you're listening and you're one of those closed minded, stubborn people that have said, you know, this is how I do it. I can't work for anyone else but me, and this is what I'm going to be stuck in.

Carm Capriotto: And then that day comes that says I need to get out. Mama is driving me nuts. My significant other is saying, you got to retire, slow down. You know, we've got to buy an RV. We got to travel. We got to go see the grandkids. You've heard all the stories before, right? And then they stopped to think that they need five years to fix the problem that they have built.

Carm Capriotto: That doesn't mean they have anything to sell my passion in doing what I do to advance the automotive service repair business and to motivate some of that mid range struggle. To hot new heights by saying, damn it. Wayne was right. Wow. Ryan is hit me up top. Fred made so much sense. I got to do this. And that's all we hope for each and every episode.

Carm Capriotto: I love this. We've got to do a part two because we didn't cover, we cover good stuff, but nowhere near what I think are things we have to pay attention to in this great correction that we're in. So bring your common sense and your intuition to everything that's going on in your business. Listen to what this great team of Wayne Marshall, Ryan Daly, and Fred. You all coaches with the Institute and do something about it.

110 - Future Proofing Your Shop: A 2025 Auto Repair Outlook [THA 419]